Just yesterday, I received a postcard with Jacqueline Smith, Clerk of Prince William County Circuit Court, and Prince William County Potomac District Supervisor Andrea Bailey, pictures together.

The Circuit Court promotes Bailey when the State Supreme Court says she broke the law!

Am I missing something here?

Lucille Fry
Montclair

PLN accepts letters to the editor on issues of local importance. Submit your letters to [email protected].

In January, we reported on Virginia’s new population estimates, which showed that Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads — but especially Northern Virginia — are now losing population while some parts of rural Virginia are now gaining.

Read More

 

QTS is conducting an extended seminar on how to foul its nest.

QTS inquired into developing a data center campus along Pageland Lane, outside of the county’s designated Data Center Opportunity Zone Overlay District, as early as the summer of 2020.

Discussions included the Prince William County Department of Economic Development, despite the fact that such development was at odds with the county’s stated land use policy.  QTS signed a non-disclosure agreement with Economic Development and their proposal was not revealed to the public until February 8, 2022.

On September 9, 2022, a QTS attorney signed a 31-page letter rescinding prior assurances made during the review of the Prince William Digital Gateway proposal.  This letter was not unveiled until the eleventh hour of a Planning Commission public hearing after public comment had concluded.

More broken promises were evident in QTS’ Digital Gateway rezoning application of January 19, 2023, where it was revealed that data center buildings adjacent to the Manassas National Battlefield Park would be 75 feet high instead of the promised 45.

Now QTS is embarking upon a disingenuous public relations campaign claiming honorable intentions.  When a demonstration was planned yesterday to call out their hypocrisy, QTS spin doctor Nick Blessing characterized it as “civil disorder.”

More like civic engagement, which QTS prefers to usurp.

QTS, who rode into town cloaked in secrecy, oozing deception and flaunting exploitation, now tries to repackage themselves as our benevolent saviors.  Nobody is buying it, and it’s getting embarrassing to watch.

They need to click their heels together and go back to Kansas.  Maybe their lawyers can figure out how to write this Prince William Digital Gateway fiasco off as a tax loss.

Bill Wright
Gainesville

PLN accepts letters to the editor on issues of local importance. Submit your letters to [email protected].

Good luck, Paris! 

I said goodbye to our spring intern, Paris Goodman, who helped to write original news stories and post press releases and other public notices to our website.

Paris, a senior at Riverbend High School in Spotsylvania County, is moving on to Texas Christian University in the fall and plans to pursue journalism.

During our final with her advisor, Ms. Gray, Paris told me that her experience at PLN helped her impress her college journalism instructors.

Paris, it was a pleasure working with you, and good luck! If you’re a high school student seeking an internship and want to learn more about local news and web publishing, apply today.

Take Your Child to Work Day

I had so much fun taking my three-year-old daughter, Saoirse, with me last Thursday for Take-Your-Child-to-Work Day. We climbed atop a new bridge to cover a dedication for a $109 million interchange on Prince William Parkway, and we interviewed the JROTC students at Potomac Senior High School in Woodbridge for an upcoming story.

It was such an experience for her to stand in the main hallway during dismissal, and she got to see what a vibrant and diverse place the high school is, from the girls’ dresses, the boys wearing Panthers sports team jerseys, and the students who gathered for an impromptu bongo drum concert. The school even gave her a lollipop — her favorite.

Reporter-Documenters

Our reporter-documenters are hard at work covering local meetings in our community. Lynn Forkell Greene has been documenting Manassas City Council meetings and the meeting about the $300 million Route 28 bypass outside Manassas.

This week on Zoom, we held our first reporter-documenter training session. I introduced the program to perspective documenters and outlined how to cover public meetings, how our systems work, and our payment process.

Please email me if you want more information about becoming a meeting documenter. I’ll schedule another documenter orientation Zoom meeting soon.

Our members make paying our meeting reporter-documenters possible. One annual membership pays for six hours of meeting coverage. Please support our mission of bringing your local news by becoming a member today.

Thank you for your continuing support of PLN.

Following the Prince William Board of County Supervisors’ vote to approve the Comprehensive Plan Amendment for the Digital Gateway last November, I urge the Planning Commission and Board of County Supervisors to continue moving forward with efforts to implement the transformative vision of the project.

The Prince William Digital Gateway aligns with the county’s strategic plan. It provides an array of benefits through an increased tax base to fund opportunities for schools, affordable housing, parks, trails, public health, transportation, and other services.

The data centers that it would bring also offer significant national security advantages. These facilities are built to operate when power has been disrupted, ensuring their functionality in a national emergency, if required.

It is critical to our national security apparatus that data management and its recovery from natural disasters or acts of terrorism remain vibrant and at the ready. Prince William County is at the center of this strategy as we take measures to harden against any threats through a multi-layered redundancy system. Additionally, data centers pave the way for cooperation between local, state, and federal entities in identifying terrorist threats or coordinating in response to them.

Our county has been presented with a tremendous opportunity to initiate wide-ranging
benefits to its residents and lead on the national security front. I hope that the Prince William County Planning Commission and county supervisors will take the necessary steps to allow the plans for the Digital Gateway to continue moving forward during the coming months.

Eugene (Gene) Stefanucci
Prince William County

PLN accepts letters to the editor on issues of local importance. Submit your letters to [email protected].

Hey Potomac Local News readers,

We’ve worked hard to cover our community in the past few weeks.

Manassas City resident Lynn Forkell Greene documented a public meeting at the Manassas Park Community Center where Prince William County residents voiced concerns about flooding and fears of being forced from their homes to make way for a three-and-half-mile, $300 million bypass road.

Last week, I spent hours covering local budget meetings in Stafford County, where elected leaders backed off of an advertised tax rate that would have meant the highest tax increase in Virginia history.

We were there when local leaders unveiled a rebranded regional bus system.  And we told you about speed cameras coming to area roads.

PLN was the only news organization in the room to report on division-wide changes coming to high school lunch periods and how schools will seat children with autism.

We had exclusive details about a first-of-its-kind development that promises affordable housing for a city’s employees. We also told you about how another city saved nearly $1 million it had planned to spend on installing new signs.

This work is made possible by members like you, including our newest members, John, Sharon, Tanisha, Richard, Timothy, and John. Your support will mean our community won’t end up like Salinas, Calif., home of a daily newspaper with zero news reporters.

With the help of our small band of documenters, student interns, and the local news ecosystem supported by publications like Insidenova.com, Prince William Times, Free Lance-Star, and trusted social media sources, we’re working to provide you with a complete picture of local news and events.

Please become a member to support our work. If you’re a business or non-profit, please consider advertising with us to promote yourself and support our mission.

Finally, please consider rolling up your sleeves and working with us to document meetings and help us build a new public record.

Committed to informing our community,

Uriah Kiser
Founder & Publisher
Potomac Local News

By Bob Weir
Prince William County Gainesville Supervisor

With Kim Hosen’s passing, the county has lost a voice of preservation, and I have lost a friend, confidant, and damper to my temper when warranted.

Kim was a long-time Prince William County resident and 2002 founder and executive of the Prince William Conservation Alliance.

She was more than just an expert on land use, the watershed, birds, butterflies, and dragonflies. She was a decent, kind, hardworking human being. She was humble, preferring to work her magic in the background, helping others find their own voices for environmental advocacy.

Kim leaves behind two sons to carry on her legacy of environmental stewardship.

It is impossible to fully enumerate the ways that Kim guided this county towards preservation and conservation. She never gave up on preserving Merrimac Farm and convinced Parks and Rec to plant trees and a wildflower meadow at Silver Lake after Tough Mudder’s contract was rescinded.

She met every challenge with quiet strength, particularly in the last 10 months of her life.

While her physical presence is no longer here, the legacy she leaves behind and the seeds she planted to protect Prince William, protect the rural crescent, implement smart land use policy, and promote sustainable quality community county-wide -live on in each and everyone one of us who had the privilege of knowing her.

PLN accepts letters to the editor on issues of local importance. Submit your letters to [email protected].

You can tell it’s election season.  Our elected officials are busily covering over the misdeeds of their tenures and re-packaging themselves as faithful servants of the people.

Look at the creative ways they try to exploit your inattention.  Did you know that our board of county supervisors has authorized a water study of the Occoquan watershed, a Sustainability Commission Report, development of a revised noise ordinance, and considering enhanced building code standards for data centers?

The results are due back about the same time as they finish pouring cement for the millions of square feet of data centers they already rushed to approve.

You’d think if they were really interested in what they claim, they might have looked into these issues before sealing our fates with their pre-determined decisions.  After all, there were certainly enough informed citizens lining up at Public Comment time pleading for them to do so.  They finally got the message after the damage was done.  Better late than never.

For the next few months of election season, you will hear nothing but accomplishments from this board. Just don’t look too closely out your car window, and for some neighborhoods, don’t even look out your back door, or you will see the reality of their “accomplishments.”

Chair Ann Wheeler is the chief practitioner of the drive-by photo op and the innocuous “proclamation.”  Throw in buttering-up a few select community members with appointments to commissions (our equivalent of ambassadorship), and you’ve built a superficial following.

How’s that working for us?

Paula Daly
Gainesville

PLN accepts letters to the editor on issues of local importance. Submit your letters to [email protected].

The proposed property tax increase in Stafford County is prohibitively high.

Many of the speakers at the Board of Supervisors’ April 4 Meeting wanted the tax increase “for the children” with the implication that if you don’t support the increase, you want to hurt our children.

While school funding is important, Stafford has a spending problem. The County paid $4.8 Million for high school land that they cannot use and is worth $3 million.  The last speaker at the meeting addressed Stafford contracting and the use of less expensive non-Stafford-based Companies.

The argument used by acquisition persons is “best value.” In-county businesses should get additional points. The unknown possible level of corruption and incompetence is what worries people.

A good potential example is the current Garrisonville Supervisor, Dr. Pamela Yeung.  She states on her county Website that she is a science and technology consultant for a Fortune 500 Company.  Stafford is planning to use Data Centers to increase tax revenue.

I want to be clear that I am not accusing Supervisor Yeung of any impropriety or indiscretion, let alone of any criminal act.  However, her work in Data Centers (IT) is what I would consider a clear conflict of interest, and given her employment, it provides the appearance of one, which is critical.

She should recuse herself from all IT acquisition issues relating to her BOS position.  Appearances are important.  She has been heavily involved in IT programs for Stafford.  If her background had been in the Federal Government, that could be acceptable, but not in commercial consulting.

Stafford needs to clean up its act.

James Schindler CPA
Stafford